


Using Hands For Emphasis

by FoxCollector



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bath Houses, Bath-off, Bathing/Washing, Clan Politics, Eew, Gen, Hashirama is over-dramatic, Izutobi, M/M, Massage, Pre-Slash, Things get a little steamy, is anyone surprised?, pun intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 10:13:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11757672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxCollector/pseuds/FoxCollector
Summary: In which Tobirama's plans to relax are derailed when he runs into Izuna in the bathhouse, but things don't end up going too badly.





	Using Hands For Emphasis

**Author's Note:**

> Now, MadaTobi is my jam, and my OTP as it were, but I thought I'd try my hand at IzuTobi. 
> 
> This definitely went better than I thought it would, and I think I would try writing them as a pairing again. Plus I needed to write something nice for these two after I put them through a literal horror story.
> 
> The downside to all that is, I may have been inspired to write another bathhouse story for these two, except it's also another horror story. I may have a problem.
> 
> Oh well. In the meantime, have this not so scary story!
> 
> Read, enjoy, review!

            When Tobirama finally sat down, he could feel the tension melt from his shoulders like ice under the sun. He hadn’t realized how stressed he’d been until he’d finally had a chance to actually relax. And of course, as an added bonus, the public bath was completely deserted.

            He had the whole place to himself.

            It was so… nice. He leaned back on the small stool for a moment, head tipped back, just to relax before he worried about actually washing up. At this rate, he might even fall asleep in the bath and drown. He closed his eyes and exhaled, cloth resting in his lap.

            He was supposed to meet Hashirama there, and he would gladly savour every moment of calm before his brother arrived. Just breathe in and out.

            He had just started rubbing soap over his legs when there was an awkward noise.

            “Senju.” Uchiha Izuna’s voice bounced off the walls.

            “Uchiha,” Tobirama returned automatically. His shoulders might have slumped just a bit. So much for relaxing.

            “What are you doing here?” Izuna asked.

            Tobirama raised an eyebrow at him. Izuna was standing just inside the doorway, small towel held in front of himself. He seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to actually go through with a bath.

            “Isn’t it obvious?” Tobirama asked. He suddenly felt a touch exposed sitting there. He tipped his chin up and made himself rub soap right up his thighs. He wasn’t going to let Izuna ruin his day.

            Izuna turned a bit pink. “Ah, well, not that. I mean, that’s…kind of…obvious.” His eyes carefully avoided Tobirama.

            After a moment of thought, he seemed to decide to stay, and he made his way to a stool a few down from Tobirama, not too close and not too far. Then he resolutely looked down and went about washing himself.

            If there was ever such a thing as a ‘bath-off’, Tobirama thought it might be like that; two people aggressively trying to be cleaner than each other, all while avoiding eye contact.

            “I actually meant, what are you doing in this town?” Izuna clarified. “Are you here alone, or with your clan?”

            Tobirama took a moment to consider answering. On the one hand, Izuna didn’t need to know Senju business. On the other hand, he might be able to use elusive answers to get something out of Izuna.

            “My brother and I are here on business,” he answered.

            Izuna stopped where he’d been aggressively scrubbing his shoulder.

            “Making alliances?” Izuna asked.

            Tobirama could feel his eyes on him. It made him shift uncomfortably. He didn’t answer.

            “I’ll take that as a yes. Madara and I are here for the same,” Izuna said. “Any luck?”

            Tobirama gave him a flat look. “I’m not going to answer that.”

            He didn’t exactly know how to answer anyway. As far as he knew, talks with the Uzumaki clan were going well, but Hashirama was meeting with the heiress and had yet to update Tobirama on the status of the proposed renewal of the alliance.

            “We sure haven’t!” Izuna said. He dumped a bowl of water over himself, rather more forcefully than he needed to; water splashed all the way over to Tobirama.

            Tobirama scowled at him.

            “Have you met with the Kurosawa clan?” Izuna asked.

            Tobirama froze. They were supposed to be meeting with the Kurosawa the next day. How exactly did Izuna know that?

            Unless the Kurosawa were seeking to forge alliances with both the Senju and the Uchiha?

            It wasn’t unheard of, but it also wasn’t a common occurrence.

            “No,” Tobirama said.

            “Well, they’re probably gonna propose to meet with you,” Izuna said. Then, his face darkened a bit. “We shot them down.”

            “Oh?” Tobirama said archly, feigning disinterest. He poured water carefully over himself.

            “Oh,” Izuna mimicked. “I personally recommend you do the same.” He tugged fingers through his long hair a little more roughly than was necessary.

            That would probably make Hashirama cry.

            “Really. And I should listen to you?” Tobirama bristled. He made himself scrub shampoo into his hair, just to make it seem as though he wasn’t invested enough in the conversation to really care.

            “I always thought the Senju valued family at least. So, if you do, then don’t agree to an alliance with them,” Izuna said. He was rough with the knots in his long hair and it made Tobirama wince.

            “…Why?” Tobirama asked. His curiosity was definitely peaked.

            Izuna watched him for a moment, then seemed to remember where they were and abruptly looked away.

            “The Kurosawa come from a small village. They’ll promise to allow intermarriage between any of their families and yours,” Izuna said. He stared at the large bowl in his hands for a moment, before tipping it over his head to wash out his hair.

            Tobirama waited.

            “The clan head will bring his daughters with him, they’re twins. He’ll ask you to spend the day with them and show them around while he negotiates with your brother,” Izuna continued.

            “Is that what you did?” Tobirama asked. He washed out his own hair much more carefully.

            “Yes. Meanwhile, Shingen will propose a marriage alliance; he’ll offer his younger daughter Tsukiko. It seems weird to us, but to them, the second born twin is considered older. Yukiko told me.”

            “Yukiko?”

            “The other daughter. She’s quiet, and she clings to her sister a lot.” Izuna frowned, and there was something in his eyes that Tobirama couldn’t place. “Tsukiko is… She outright told me not to accept their offer of alliance.”

            “Why would she do that?” Tobirama asked. He was genuinely puzzled.

            Izuna refilled the bowl with water. “Our deal would have been that any child able to awaken the Sharingan belongs to the Uchiha, but any set of twins goes to their village. They do something special with them, some kind of ritual.”

            “Why does that matter? There are a lot of families that perform rituals. The Kuze in the North have well-known ritual practices,” Tobirama said.

            “The Kuze don’t kill anyone,” Izuna said. “Tsukiko told me they believe twins were born as one, and one of them must die for them to become one again. She didn’t give me any more details. But well, it didn’t go over well when I told Madara.”

            “I suppose it wouldn’t,” Tobirama said.

            If there was one thing Tobirama could admire the Uchiha for, it was the love they held for one another.

            “So, we turned them down. And you should too. And I know they’re planning on asking you. Shingen said as much. At the outset, he told Madara he was also interested in the Senju.” Izuna stared at the floor.

            “…We’re supposed to meet with them tomorrow,” Tobirama said.

            “Well, now you know,” Izuna said. He stood up, small towel in place.

            “Wait,” Tobirama said. He hesitated for a moment. “Would you…wash my back?”

            Izuna’s eyes went wide, then understanding dawned on his face.

            Tobirama didn’t have any information to share, but he could make an offer that was just as personal.

            “Sure,” Izuna said. He sat down on the stool next to Tobirama and plucked the soap from its resting place.

            Tobirama turned to face away from him, head turned just enough to keep Izuna in sight.

            “Don’t trust me?” Izuna asked. His tone was light, but his eyes were guarded.

            Tobirama scoffed. That much should be obvious.

            “Well, you asked for it,” Izuna said.

            He started with slow, small circles, running soap over Tobirama’s back. And then longer strokes as he became more confident that Tobirama wasn’t luring him into some kind of trap. His pace stayed slow, aiming more for relaxation than efficiency. Then once or twice he followed the soap with a finger, tracing a scar.

            It felt…good.

            Different than when Hashirama washed his back. But then, that should have been obvious.

            The tension in his shoulders started to melt. Izuna traced the soap lower, one hand following, and Tobirama was pretty sure he was adequately soapy now.

            He didn’t say anything.

            Izuna poured water over his back, and brought his hands down on Tobirama’s shoulders.

            “You are really tense, you know that? I mean, the muscle knots in here are crazy,” Izuna said.

            He dug skillful fingers in, working at knots that Tobirama didn’t know he had, although he wasn’t surprised really. He was usually stressed to the maximum, and at this point it was pretty much his default state. He had half a mind to tell Izuna to stop, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He didn't even want to, even if he felt like he should.

            A shiver went up his spine. It had been a long time since anyone had rubbed his shoulders. He’d forgotten how relaxing it could be.

            It was then that he realized that at some point he’d completely closed his eyes and stopped watching Izuna entirely. His head was tipped back and it made him feel more exposed than the fact that he was naked.

            He opened his eyes again, and found Izuna in the corner of his gaze. He was focussed entirely on his own hands on Tobirama’s shoulders.

            After a moment Izuna looked satisfied. And then he frowned. “Your back is pretty tense too.”

            It was the only warning he had before Izuna’s hands were sliding down his back, fingers pressing into his skin.

            He was starting to feel a little light headed. Gods, he could fall asleep. He bit his lip and tipped his head back just a bit more when Izuna dug his fingers into a particularly nasty muscle knot. It almost hurt, but not exactly in a bad way.

            It occurred to him that it would probably be easy for someone like Izuna to slide him into a genjutsu doing something like this, but when he checked, everything was calm and Izuna was only buzzing with an energy that made Tobirama arch his back just a touch.

            Izuna’s hands slid lower, tentatively stopping just at the base of his spine. He moved them out, lightly skimming up along Tobirama’s sides so he had to move his arms out of the way and then followed the lines of his sides back down, dropping lower, to where his hips met his thighs. He paused again, waiting for any kind of reaction.

            Tobirama didn’t even breathe. He didn’t want Izuna to stop, and he didn’t want Izuna to know he didn’t want him to stop. They were skirting a line, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to cross it.

            Izuna seemed to take his silence as permission, which he supposed it was, given he could do any number of things to stop Izuna if he wanted. Izuna skimmed his fingers just over the curve of Tobirama’s ass and back up to the safety of his lower back. He rubbed small circles on either side of his spine.

            Tobirama wondered if Izuna could feel his heartbeat through his back, or the way his muscles shivered. He might have, because then he repeated the motion, moving just a bit slower, hands lingering just a bit longer than they should to cup his ass and then slide up, fingers meeting to trail just between his cheeks on their way up. Izuna moved closer to him and the air between them was heavy.

            There was a loud bang and both Tobirama and Izuna jolted, standing up and moving apart. Tobirama nearly dropped the towel he’d been holding in his lap when he moved to wrap it around his waist.

            A second later, Hashirama exploded into the room, and of all things, Madara was in tow, even if he didn’t look happy to be there.

            “Tobirama!” Hashirama cried. “I have good news!”

            Tobirama actively recoiled. There were practically hearts radiating from his brother, and he had no doubt that the big sap was about to force him to listen to every single detail of the day. Hashirama rushed forward, apparently intending to go for a hug, and hung his head when Tobirama stopped him with a hand to his chest.

            “Izuna,” Madara said. “I have bad news.”

            Izuna frowned at his brother. “What happened this time?” He pulled his hair back, tying it up so he could go and sit in the bath at the back of the room.

            “Nothing happened!” Madara bristled. “Why do you assume it was my fault?”

            “I didn’t, but now I do,” Izuna said. He turned to Tobirama. “Guess that means I’ll be updating you on something else tomorrow.”

            Tobirama turned his attention towards Izuna, and in the split second he took his eyes off of Hashirama, his brother managed to get behind him and pick him up around the waist. Tobirama’s eyes widened and he nearly kicked Izuna in the face when Hashirama spun them around.

            “We’re going to get married! And she’s great!” Hashirama declared.

            “Put me down, or there won’t be anything left for her to marry,” Tobirama said. He dug his nails into his brother’s arms, like an angry cat.

            “Aw come on,” Hashirama said. He tightened his grip.

            Tobirama tried to keep his legs down, he was hoping to kick his brother in the shins and force him to drop him, and he was also really trying not to flash Izuna and Madara, because the modesty towel suddenly wasn’t seeming very modest.

            Madara ignored them and went to sit as far away as possible. He’d apparently decided not to tell Izuna anything else until later. Izuna went off towards the bath at the end of the hall, eyes lingering for just a moment on Tobirama.

            “Put me down,” Tobirama repeated.

            “If I put you down, will you wash my hair?” Hashirama asked.

            “Fine, yes,” Tobirama all but hissed.

            “Yay!” Hashirama said. He set his younger brother down on the ground and promptly sat himself down on the stool next to Tobirama.

            “I think that just undid all my hard work,” Izuna called out.

            Tobirama froze. He’d been under the impression they were just going to forget about that. Madara barely spared a glance between them, and Hashirama was too busy pouring water over his head to really notice.

            “If you want, I can do you again tomorrow,” Izuna said.

            That did make both Madara and Hashirama snap to look at Izuna.

            “Ah, poor choice of words! You know what I mean,” Izuna said. He was bright red.

            Tobirama sighed. He was probably going to be listening to Hashirama all night, and then if he had to look forward to denying an alliance with the Kurosawa…

            “Sure. I’d like that,” he called back.

            He didn’t miss the self-satisfied smirk on Izuna’s face before he turned away.

            Thankfully, Hashirama had started prattling on about his day and had completely forgotten about Izuna. Tobirama sighed and sat down to wash his brother’s hair. He resigned himself to listening to Hashirama’s day, nodding and hmming at the appropriate points.

            But there were phantom fingers running over his skin, and honestly, he couldn’t wait for tomorrow.


End file.
